Holograms
Holograms are highly advanced and scientific photographs that present pseudo-three dimensional images! Truly, they are the future. Visionaries was quite keen on them. Indeed, the entire line is built around them. They came in two types and were used in a variety of manners. =Types= Silver Holograms Printed on a silver foil material, these holograms were used on vehicles and all on Visionaries packaging. They contained two images that alternated depending on the angle of the light reflecting off them. The most common of these is the Merklynn hologram placed under the Visionaries logo on packaging and on various places of each vehicle. This alternates between a head and shoulders portrait of Merklynn and a full portrait of him using magic. The highly reflective quality of the foil these holograms were printed on impairs how well they actually work as holograms in many cases. One image becomes largely dominant, with the other hard to make visible (in the case of the above example, Merklynn's head is usually dominant). Given their proliferation on something as simple and disposable as the packaging, it's likely these were the cheaper of the two types of hologram. They're also more flexible than their black counterparts, being able to be applied on curved surfaces. Many of the silver holograms used in the toy line seem to be replacements for black holograms seen in early catalogue images, such as on the Lancer Cycle's air brakes, or even box photography, as with the Capture Chariot's front section. The unreleased vehicles scheduled for 1988 seemed to be designed around the black holograms' limitations and appear to feature no silver holograms. Black Holograms The more effective type of holograms, these bear a resemblance to photographic negatives. Less reflective, they allow for a deeper and clearer image, usually with a broader range and stronger colour. Black holograms were the staple holograms of the range and used for key areas; each of the Visionaries' chest plates and power staffs as well as the large holograms on most of the vehicles. They were also able to alternate between two images, usually more effectively than the silver holograms. Unfortunately, black holograms are prone to irreversible and largely unpreventable wear and damage. It's entirely common to find even the best preserved figure has scratches or even black splotches on their hologram. =Uses= Chest Holograms Each Visionaries figure comes with a black hologram glued to a removable chest plate. These all represent the character's animal totem and show a picture of said animal that often have a surprising amount of 'depth'. Although all the released figures' chest holograms only show their animal totem, the unreleased figures of 1988 were to have chest holograms that alternated the animal totem with the faction symbol. 1988 Hasbro Pre-Toy Fair Catalogue: "Each...figure...comes with dual image, 3-dimensional holographic chest shield." Chest plates on the released Visionaries figures are removable and interchangeable (which makes buying figures on the secondary market tricky, as they often have the incorrect chest plate, if any). This seems to be a legacy of the original design style of the power staffs. For the second wave, chest plates were no longer removable and were fully incorporated into the design of the figures. Generally unique in shape to each figure, they appear on some to be sculpted as part of the figure's chest, though all hold the same size and shape of hologram. Power Staffs The power staffs were all adorned with black holograms, each measuring about 27mm wide and 37mm high. These holograms represented a variety of magical powers through abstract imagery. While these images still had a '3D' element, it was not as 'deep' as chest holograms'. This is because each power staff hologram also had a secondary image of the character's faction symbol - a unicorn for the Spectral Knights and a dragon for the Darkling Lords. Holograms on early prototype power staffs were the same size and shape as the chest holograms and even seem to be mounted on the same chest plates. Presumably this offered a degree of interchangeability between staffs and chests. This is also why a significant amount of Visionaries artwork, from the comics through to VHS covers have very small heads on the power staffs. Even the Iron Mountain playset box art (printed on the back of each carded figure) shows these small power staffs. The change may explain why none are present in the card art for the single pack figures. Power Shields Replacing power staffs for all but one of the unreleased 1988 figures, power shields had black holograms largely the same. The power shields also alternated between two images, but the faction animals were no longer one of them. Information available is sketchy, but it seems that the two images are related. Aquarrior's for instance switches between a close-up of a mutant shark and an oceanic deity hurling said sharks. Vehicles All the Visionaries vehicles were adorned with a variety of holograms. Each had at least one small silver hologram of Merklynn, identical in design to the one used on the packaging. Beyond that, the number and type of holograms varied from vehicle to vehicle. The Lancer Cycle for instance, had no black holograms, but silver ones on the "air-brake" side pads and a unique clear hologram on the canopy, whereas the Sky Claw had (besides the Merklynn holo) just black holograms. Holodrome The ill-fated and unreleased Iron Mountain playset, dubbed the Holodrome, was advertised with a special free-floating fully 3d hologram of Merklynn. The kind of hologram that you see in sci-fi movies. If you're wondering how a toy company could manage to produce and sell something like in the 80s when no-one's managed to do much of anything like that since, well the answer is they couldn't. The playset was delayed from the first year's line because they couldn't get the hologram to work and if it had been released in the second year almost certainly wouldn't have had it. References Category:Real world Category:Action Figures